This Will Get You So Excited For Doctor Strange

The time has come for us to start getting really excited for Marvel's upcoming film Doctor Strange. I mean, you know, if you weren't already. During San Diego's Comic-Con panel, an all new Doctor Strange trailer gave us a more in depth glimpse into the mind of Stephen Strange, aka Sorcerer Supreme, aka the titular superhero. But something about Doctor Strange's personality might come as a shock to those who aren't well informed of his character, and it also might remind you of someone. If you ask the actor who plays Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), then the newest Marvel superhero happens to share a personality trait with Cumberbatch's other well known character: Sherlock Holmes. That's right. Two pretty dissimilar characters — Doctor Strange and Sherlock Holmes — share one pretty specific trait.

When Collider asked Cumberbatch what people would find surprising about the upcoming film, the actor's answer had to do with some of Stephen Strange's particular qualities. He said:

"Quite how much he suffers and how extraordinary his willpower is. I think that's his main superhero trait, is that the guy is sort of unstoppably stubborn. He won't cease. And that's great, because you see this character really go through the grinder. It's non-stop punishment for this dude. What he has to become and how quickly he's tested in the new arena that he becomes this person is so violent, so sudden, so non-stop, and psychologically brutal as well as physically very very brutal. It's a huge character arc. So I think that might surprise people."

Doesn't "unstoppably stubborn" seem like a familiar characteristic of Sherlock? What about this concept of "not ceasing"? While Stephen Strange and Sherlock Holmes couldn't be more different in terms of how they solve things (Sherlock is ruled by logic, where Strange has mystical, magical powers), I deduce that Doctor Strange and Sherlock Holmes are not so different after all. Which makes Benedict Cumberbatch all the better to nail the role. And the film? All the better for it.

Sherlock would likely laugh at Doctor Strange's source of power. Like the Cloak of Levitation that allows him to fly or the Eye of Agamotto that he wears around to protect himself from illusions. But like Sherlock, Stephen Strange has endured what Cumberbatch calls "non-stop punishment," and that's part of what makes him so compelling. After he injure's his hand in a car accident, his career is over and he must find a way to get his abilities to back. If Cumberbatch is able to bring the kind of pathos to Strange as he brought to Sherlock, then this will be another character of his we soon won't forget.

See Doctor Strange and Benedict Cumberbatch's portrayal of him when the film hits theaters on November 4.

Images: Marvel Entertainment/Walt Disney Pictures; Giphy (2)